And the Silver Goes To…

The Pyrite version of silver is nickel, right? Wait. What? Apparently we are just as bad at chemistry as we are at math. Used under CC license from flickr user yaybiscuits123.

Honor Vote Time!

Honor book voting policies are weirdly absent from the RealCommittee P&P, but we checked in with a number of friends and colleagues, including at least one former RealCommittee Chair and one former RealCommittee Admin Assistant to make sure we had it down. And so we are ready to put the honor book voting procedures into black and white for all to see.

Once the winner is chosen, an Honor Book straw poll is taken, in which each person votes for four titles. Every nominated title other than the already determined winner is eligible for an Honor, with no regard for whether it garnered any votes in the polling for the winning title, so the straw poll includes the complete nomination list. Any book receiving zero votes in the straw poll is dropped from the Honor Book ballot, and then the real Honor voting commences.

For our Pyrite* purposes, we are going to open it back up to the entire Pyrite nomination list — and yes, we realize the system this year has been flawed. We are trying to find the balance between a list that all players have time to read (which was why we voted it down to 10 before the true Pyrite vote) and a list that allows us to recognize a wide range of titles and really reflects the year. (If you have better ideas for achieving that balance next year, please let us know — we are definitely open to suggestions!) But we will skip the straw poll, mostly for the sake of time, and hopefully the results will be decisive anyway.

Honor voting is weighted just as the standard vote for first place, but since each person can vote for up to four books, the points are allocated as 7-5-3-1 instead of 5-3-1.

Now, one thing that does not appear, as far as we can tell, to be set in stone (and which none of us remember with certainty) is the point at which the committee determines how many honor books they will recognize. So while this may not be canon, what we’re going to do here is vote based on the maximum of four, and then look at the point spread before we decide the number of honor books. We may have a point spread that clearly indicates there are two or three books that fall way higher in our collective estimation than any others for the honor slots, and maybe we only recognize those 2 or 3. Or we could do as every iteration of the RealCommittee has done, and recognize the full four, because more recognition for more excellent titles is always good.

(For the record, Karyn tends to be all about the smaller and even more selective list, and in any conversation about honor book numbers ends up sitting alone in the corner being booed for that attitude. She’s hoping to find at least one or two sympathetic compatriots this time around.)

As we did for the Pyrite winner, please vote in the comments. You may vote for up to four titles and do please number them 1-4 (or 1-3, or 2, if you are feeling very selective indeed). We’ll collect votes until Saturday early evening, and post the results Saturday night or Sunday morning.

*The Pyrite Printz, or Pyrite, is the Someday My Printz Will Come mock Printz deliberation, and should not in any way be confused with YALSA’s Michael L. Printz Award, often referred to here as the RealPrintz or Printz. Our predictions, conversations, and speculation about potential RealPrintz contenders and winners reflect only our own best guesses and are not affiliated with YALSA or the RealPrintz committee. You probably figured that out on your own, but we like to make it clear!

Like Miriam this time I voted more heart than head. I figure when you get to this point you can make a compelling case for any of the titles so why not listen to my heart this go around ? ( this said after switching my vote 4 times!)

Hmm, with the larger list I don’t feel like I have to have read all the contenders to vote honestly.

1. Seraphina
2. Bomb
3. Ask the Passengers.

Stopping there not because I want to be selective but because of the ten titles I’ve read from that list, those are the only ones I can really get behind.

I almost wish the lists were released with numbers. There’s such a big difference between an honor book that is a million points ahead of all the others and an honor book that barely held on by the skin of its teeth. Which is why I agree that the math has to decide how many books should be honored.

1. The Fault in Our Stars. How does he do heartbreaking and funny on the same page?
2. Bitterblue. How much did I love this? I wish it had come out in a year when Code Name Verity and The Fault in our Stars didn’t.

I’m currently halfway though Personal Effects and really enjoying it. I just started Brides of Rollrock Island and wouldn’t be too shocked to see that one receive a Printz nod on Monday. I’m also, really hoping Endangered receives some love on Monday morning, I’ll be in the room when the announcements are made! I can’t wait!